1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to techniques and devices for locating, tracking, positioning and limiting the movement of mobile machines and/or mobile appendages of machines. More specifically, this invention relates to the tracking and control of the positions of such machines that makes use of a computer system programmed to receive positional information and user specified three dimensional boundary information and then to limit the movement of the machine within the established boundaries.
2. Description of Related Art
A variety of devices and techniques for position tracking and control are well known in the field. These include the use of one or two location points and then supplementing this data with information from onboard sensors or movement algorithms. The use of onboard sensors has been proven to be problematic, in that in many circumstances devices or sensors, which are located on the machines, body are destroyed or damaged during operation of the machine. Some prior systems, such as the Caterpillar CAESultra, Leica Geosystems Dozer 2000 and the Modular Mining Systems Shovel Positioning System, provide computer based machine operator assistance that displays the current location of the equipment relative to predefined surface outlines. Other prior systems, such as the P&H Mining Equipment OptiDig is designed to automatically optimize the power usage of electric shovels during digging.
Further systems, such as supplied by P&H Mining Equipment's Electric Boom Protection Envelope, is designed to limit the dipper of an electric shovel from coming into contact and potentially damaging the shovel boom by controlling the speed and motion of the shovel hoist and crowd. Still further systems, such as Caterpillar's Accugrade use only two GPS (“Global Positioning Satellite”) receiver units positioned on the blade of the dozer to determine if the dozer blade is going past any design limits and to lift the blade if it is. And, another system, the Norvariant Logic 7D, uses two GPS antennas connected to a dual GPS receiver to track the position of the bucket and compare this information to data supplied by the user to display the location of the bucket relative to the final design of the project being worked on.
Systems having locating means are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,106,022 which describes a relay system for relaying hyperbolic navigation signal information received by a mobile user. U.S. Pat. No. 4,583,907 describes a flexible extensible apparatus for employing an end-use work tool for one of multiple purposes. U.S. Pat. No. 4,622,458 describes a trajectory acquisition and monitoring system that includes a plurality of mobile optical-electronic data acquisition stations for individual training on particular mobile targets.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,157,408 describes a radio system for determining the range and bearing of mobile equipment, with a low probability of interception. U.S. Pat. No. 5,432,841 describes a vehicle location system which provides a plurality of cellular systems that includes a memory for identifying the cellular subscriber stations that are based in the particular system and visiting cellular subscriber stations based in another of the systems. U.S. Pat. No. 5,710,798 describes a system and method for wireless transmission of information which is subject to fading by using an RF carrier modulated with a subcarrier modulated with the information.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,040,801 describes a radio navigation system that is particularly directed to means for transmitting range and azimuthal information to selected receivers only. U.S. Pat. No. 6,047,475 describes a demolition shear attachable to a mobile machine by one of two brackets. U.S. Pat. No. 6,085,090 describes an autonomous interrogatable information and position device that combines the functionality of a satellite communications device, a geo-location device, an input/output port, and a control processor.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,370,126 B1 describes a communication system for communication with a plurality of mobile terminals. U.S. Pat. No. 6,377,210 B1 describes an automatic mobile object locator apparatus and method that provide position information and map data to user terminal equipment through a data communication network, such as the Internet. U.S. Pat. No. 6,405,132 B1 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,045,132 B1 describe systems and methods for preventing vehicle accidents in which GPS ranging signals relating to a host vehicle's position on a roadway on a surface of the earth are received on a first communication link from a network of satellites and DGPS auxiliary range correction signals for correcting propagation delay errors in the GPS ranging signals are received on a second communication link from a station or satellite.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,768,944 B2 describes a control system and method for controlling a vehicle or a component of a vehicle in which an inertial reference unit includes accelerometers and gyroscopes which provide data on vehicle motion and a processor processes the data and controls the vehicle or component of the vehicle based thereon. U.S. Pat. No. 6,799,032 B2 describes a mobile entity that provides accuracy limit data that indicate a desired accuracy of location data about the mobile entity. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,799,116 B2 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,862,526 B2 describe methods and apparatus for producing GPS corrections. U.S. Pat. No. 6,813,499 B2 describes a method and device for obscuring the location of a mobile entity to a specified accuracy level. U.S. Pat. No. 6,882,307 B1 describes a system for interactive tracking and inventorying of incident response equipment.